The influence of major powers, their interests and the roles they each play has exacerbated the long Civil War in Syria. Since March 2011, when pro-democracy activists in Syria launched demonstration to remove the Syrian President Al-Assad from power due to concerns associated to a failing economy, unemployment, corruption and lack of political freedom. The roles of great powers such as Russia, China, Israel and others such as Turkey of recent, has fueled conflict in Northern Syria. The United States of America, in a move to maintain its geopolitical interests and that of the allies as a hegemon had influenced the arrangement of things in Syria for a long time but by primarily defeating Islamic terrorist. Fighting along the Kurdish forces to eliminate ISIL in Syria, the presence of the United States military had provided a stumbling block to Turkish quest to eliminate the Kurdish forces in its Northern boarders associated with ‘terrorist’ groups Ankara detests. When the US President Donald Trump announced a major withdrawal of US troops from Northern Syria, Tayyip Erdogan, saw an opportunity to seize. The Turkish security concerns are related to the presence of Kurdish forces (the YPG) that are linked to separatists’ groups in Turkey which Ankara calls “terrorists”.
The withdrawal of the US military from Northern Syria was highly criticized by US allies and Trump’s Republican House of Representatives who saw the US move as having left out their long term allies in the fight against ISIL. The Syrian Democratic Force YPG group of General Mazloum Abdi had occupied and controlled Northern Syria. The Departure of the US troops provided a fertile ground for Turkish’ Tayyip Recep Erdogan to launch a major operation to create allegedly ‘safe zones’ for the return of Syrian refugees in Turkey. However, its important to note that because Turkey has for long been harboring Kurdish separatist groups that are critical of Erdogan’s administration in Ankara, the lack of US military presence gave the Turkish President an opportunity to fight the Kurds who seems to ally with separatist groups in Turkey that are likely undermine Ankara’s current administration. Certainly, the question could be whether military intervention in Northern Syria was justified under international law and whether the presence of the YPG group of Commander Mazloum Abdi inside Syria but along the border, created a threat to Turkey’s territorial existence and thus warranting Ankara’s move for military pre-emption. Certainly, the argument does not hold that far objectively. Its precisely because of threats and political interests that Erdogan feels and sees that have dictated Turkish military offensive in the region. Russia continue to maintain troops in Syria and is watching the space closely. Russia is an ally of Erdogan as seen in the most recent flamboyant move by Ankara to procure military hardware from Kremlin against NATO’s wishes – a move that angered the United States and placed the two NATO allies on collusion course. The Israeli, meanwhile is concerned about the situation in Syria that are not only likely to cause a rebirth of ISIL but give further opportunity to Iran, a longtime ally of Al-Assad to assert its authority in the region – a move Israel would consider a security threat. China is closely watching the space as a trading partner of the failing Damascus regime. The multipolar power interests have once again turned Syria into a battle field to the detriment of the Syrian population. The war has led to loss of over 500,000 civilian lives and many wounded as well as total collapse of the Syrian economy. Can the United States continue to assert authority, protect its interests and that of allies in the region without its military presence? The answer is certainly no but the United States continue to will power as a hegemon in ‘ordering’ behaviors of states in the region. This “ordering” can be reflected and interpreted by US diplomatic efforts in which the US Vice President, Mike Pence and Secretary of State Pompeo was able to secure a deal and ceasefire in the region
